Only in Jerusalem can one see Jews, Christians and Moslems hurrying with their prayer books and carpets to perform their prayer obligations in their respective holy shrines. The other day, a Friday evening, I was walking in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem when I saw a Jewish couple impeccably dressed hurrying with their prayer book in hand to the Western Wall for Sabbath services. Each Friday, around noon time thousands of Moslems hurry through Damascus Gate, the main entrance gate to the old city of Jerusalem, carrying their personal carpets, towards the holy compound of Al Haram Ash-Sharif housing one of the holiest mosques in Islam. Moslems need the carpet to perform their prayers facing Mecca, the holiest city of Islam. On Sundays, I remember from my childhood in the alleys and narrow streets of Old Jerusalem, Franciscan friars and priests, together with nuns and other faithful who speed to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with their prayer books and bibles. They still do it even though the Latin prayer books have now changed language as they are printed in a variety of languages, including Arabic the tongue of the indigenous Palestinian Arab Christian community.

Only in Jerusalem can one see Jews, Christians and Moslems hurrying with their prayer books and carpets to perform their prayer obligations in their respective holy shrines. The other day, a Friday evening, I was walking in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem when I saw a Jewish couple impeccably dressed hurrying with their prayer book in hand to the Western Wall for Sabbath services. Each Friday, around noon time thousands of Moslems hurry through Damascus Gate, the main entrance gate to the old city of Jerusalem, carrying their personal carpets, towards the holy compound of Al Haram Ash-Sharif housing one of the holiest mosques in Islam. Moslems need the carpet to perform their prayers facing Mecca, the holiest city of Islam. On Sundays, I remember from my childhood in the alleys and narrow streets of Old Jerusalem, Franciscan friars and priests, together with nuns and other faithful who speed to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with their prayer books and bibles. They still do it even though the Latin prayer books have now changed language as they are printed in a variety of languages, including Arabic the tongue of the indigenous Palestinian Arab Christian community.

What fascinates me in the scene of the Jewish couple, the Moslem masses and the Christian few speeding with their books and carpets to perform prayers is the power and hold of religion. The way we speed in Jerusalem towards our different places of worship makes me wonder where we all went wrong. We profess belief in the One God and that is why our respective religions are referred to as the monotheistic (one God) religions. When we hurry to pray each in her/his holy shrine, aren’t we all turning to the same God? And yet sadly what is supposed to unite us is precisely what divides us. It could be that the different experiences, contexts and environments have impacted our understanding and knowledge of God in the Jewish, Christian and Moslem traditions and subsequently rendered our prayers more particular and exclusive. In one sense hurrying with books and carpets to the holy shrines to pray is an affirmation of community: it identifies one with one’s group and makes for some emotional elation as one rubs shoulders with coreligionists intend on nothing else but prayer.

But where is the power of prayer in our daily lives and in our relations with each other? And how can we reconcile our knowledge and understanding of Yahweh, God and Allah with unfair practices, judgments and injustices committed against each other? Isn’t the person or group in prayer supposed to be at peace with oneself and with others? But is it possible that the more prayer becomes an affirmation of one’s own community, the less it speaks to the All Loving God?

May be the greatest challenge to all of us, when we speed with our prayer books and carpets to our different holy shrines, is to include the others in our prayers. If we do this then we are on our way to healing the wounds of history, peacemaking and eventual reconciliation in the One All Loving Yahweh God Allah!

Dr. Bernard SabellaAssociate Professor of SociologyBethlehem UniversityBethlehem – Palestinian TerritoriesExecutive DirectorDepartment of Service to Palestinian RefugeesMiddle East Council of ChurchesJerusalem